Newsletter: January / February 2006

Special Opportunity to Undergo Non-Surgical Facial Rejuvenation

As all of you know, our office utilizes the most modern and effective modalities available to rejuvenate the face and enable our patients to look their best without surgery. These treatment methods include the Fraxel laser, Vbeam laser, Thermage, FotoFacial, Photodynamic therapy with Levulan, Botox, and fillers such as Collagen, Restylane, and Sculptra. Our website, maryleeamerian.com, provides a large amount of information about each of these treatments.

In order to provide users of our website with additional information regarding the wonderful rejuvenation these techniques can accomplish, we wish to post on the website before and after photos of a few of our actual patients who have undergone these procedures.

We are seeking patients who are between the ages of 30 and 65 who wish to undergo non-surgical facial rejuvenation and who are willing to have their before and after photographs and their age displayed on our website. The names of the patients will not be given. The photographs and age of the patient would be shown for educational purposes only, and no other identifying information will be displayed. In return for a patient’s willingness to display their photographs and age, our office will perform the facial rejuvenation procedures at a substantial discount from the usual prices.

Patients who would like to take advantage of this opportunity to undergo non-surgical facial rejuvenation at a substantial discount are invited to make an appointment with either Dr. Amerian or Dr. Anterasian.

Question of the Month – How Do I Take Care of My Skin During the Winter Months?

Winter is hard on skin because cold temperatures, harsh winds, and low humidity remove moisture from the skin. These environmental factors impede the proper functioning of the skin’s lipids (fats), which normally help to prevent the skin from getting dry. Women who normally have drier skin will find that this problem gets worse during the winter months. The following tips will help you keep your skin looking its best during the winter months.

First, don’t overheat your home. Heating the air will reduce the humidity level in your home and lead to drier skin. Also, don’t sleep under an electric blanket. The heat from the electric blanket will suck out the moisture from your skin.

Do not take long hot showers. This will remove the natural moisturizing lipids (fats) from the skin. It is better to take a short lukewarm shower, no longer than ten minutes. Use either a non-irritating fragrance-free soap, a cleanser that contains oils and emollients, or a moisturizing body wash. Bubble baths are contraindicated. However, soothing oil can be added to bath water to moisten and help rehydrate the skin. Try to limit washing the face to twice a day, as more frequent washing will tend to dry the face excessively.

After your shower or bath, gently pat the skin until almost dry, and then apply a good body moisturizer while the skin is still damp. This will help lock in the moisture in the upper layers of the skin. In general, the drier the skin, the thicker the moisturizer you should use. We generally advise our patients to apply their moisturizers twice a day, but women with very dry skin might want to apply moisturizers even more frequently. Whenever you wash your hands, immediately apply a hand cream to seal in moisture.

In choosing a facial moisturizer, it is important to know what type of skin you have. The moisturizer should be applied after washing and gently towel drying, when the skin is still slightly damp. For normal skin, choose a highly protective day cream that contains zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, and provides SPF 20 or SPF 30 protection. If you have dry skin, first use a moisturizing facial cleanser followed by an emollient or oil-based moisturizer. Products like these contain glycerin, dimethicone, and hyaluronic acid. For very dry skin, try SkinMedica Dermal Repair Cream.

Humidifiers are very helpful to keep the skin from getting dry. Two or three humidifiers placed around the home will add moisture to the air, reduce the loss of moisture from the skin, and help prevent the skin from becoming cracked and itchy. If only one humidifier is available, place it in the bedroom at night to moisturize the air while you’re sleeping.

Remember that dry winter air will make the skin more sensitive to many skin care products. Products containing retinoids can be drying and their use during the winter will increase the chance of developing dry, flaky, or red skin. For this reason, women who use Retin-A or Renova might have to reduce the frequency of application during the winter. In addition, certain alpha hydroxy acids, such as glycolic acid, and beta hydroxy acids, such as salicylic acid, can exacerbate dry and irritated skin, and their use may also have to be diminished during the winter months.

It’s also important to continue to protect your skin from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, so use a makeup and moisturizer with at least SPF 15 on your face and a lip balm with sun block on your lips throughout the winter. Finally, make sure you eat a well-balanced diet, drink plenty of water, and moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!

2005 Highlights of the Year

The start of a new year gives everyone the opportunity to look back on the year that just ended and reflect on all that occurred. As we think back on 2005, we would like to share with you our most significant enhancements to our practice.

Our practice was profiled by MedEsthetics magazine. MedEsthetics is a professional journal distributed to dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and other cosmetic physicians. Dr. Amerian will be on the cover of the magazine in early 2006.

We added the Fraxel laser. This has allowed us to offer full face resurfacing with minimal downtime to our patients who have sun damaged skin, aging skin, fine wrinkling, or acne scarring.

Based on the latest scientific information, we changed our Thermage technique. With the new Thermage technique, the facial skin is treated five times during one treatment session using lower and much more comfortable energy levels. This replaced the old method of performing the procedure in which the facial skin was treated only once at higher and more painful energy levels. This change in technique has resulted in a more effective facial rejuvenation procedure and a more comfortable procedure.

Dr. Amerian appeared on the front page of the Health section of the Los Angeles Times. The Times article highlighted the use of the VelaSmooth device for the treatment of cellulite. For the first time, women now have an effective method of treating cellulite. The VelaSmooth is a laser-like device that combines radio frequency and infrared light energies with tissue mobilization. These three treatment modalities work together to safely and effectively improve cellulite and recontour the skin surface. Since our initial announcement in January 2005 that we had obtained the VelaSmooth, the product has gone on to become FDA approved for the treatment of cellulite. In a recently published medical study performed at Cornell University, patients treated with the VelaSmooth had a reduction in their thigh circumference and an improvement in their cellulite and skin texture.

We completed our second season of work for the television show “Ten Years Younger.” We have thus far treated a total of seventeen patients for the show. Dr. Amerian has used virtually every technique of non-surgical facial rejuvenation to treat these patients. By the end of each show, every patient really did look “Ten Years Younger.”

We incorporated a new semi-permanent filler called “Sculptra” into our practice. Sculptra stimulates the production of a patient’s own new collagen. It is this new collagen that produces the improvement in the appearance of the skin following Sculptra treatment. That’s why the improvement from Sculptra lasts longer than the improvement from other injected materials. After completing Sculptra treatment, skin creases, wrinkles, depressions, and folds are all improved. Results last for up to two years in most patients, and in some patients even longer.

We informed and educated our patients about skin cancer, moles, acne scarring, cellulite, rosacea, summer skin care, and winter skin care (in this issue). Our patients are invited to ask Dr. Amerian or Dr. Anterasian any questions about their skin that they would like to see discussed in future newsletters.